April the 9th, 2021 - The paradoxical situation with the Croatian COVID-19 vaccination process is continuing as a city five times smaller than the Croatian capital of Zagreb vaccinates twice the amount of people.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, following the general rehearsal held on Tuesday this week, to which 90 Zagreb residents of those invited (500 invitations were sent out) for vaccination responded, only 783 of the 1,500 invited ended up actually coming and being vaccinated on Wednesday. Significantly fewer people came than were actually invited, which poses a concerning issue.
"We aren't very happy with the response. In any case, it's better than it was the day before,'' stated the Andrija Stampar Institute's Tatjana Petricevic Vidovic.
Over in Rijeka, the same mass vaccination process took place using AstraZeneca, but the results there were much, much better. In a city six times smaller than Zagreb, twice as many people were vaccinated in one day than in Zagreb - 1,400. This news signals continuing issues surrounding the Croatian COVID-19 vaccination process which aren't likely to clear themselves up soon.
As of this week, everyone living in Zagreb should probably be making their way (upon invitation) to the Zagreb Fair (Zagrebacki Velesajam) for vaccination against the novel virus. There is no more vaccination with the first dose for outpatient clinics, but instead for those who applied through the vaccination portal and those who were on the lists of their family doctors who are also invited.
"It's done in the sense of the GP taking out his notebook again and calling his patients who haven't been vaccinated yet, asking them if they want to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca and if they do want to, he then he refers them them for vaccination at the Zagreb Fair," explained the president of the Croatian Family Medicine Coordination, Natasa Ban Toskic.
Thus, the aforementioned Zagreb-based paradox was created. Finally, in a long and somewhat embarrassing Croatian COVID-19 vaccination process, there are now many mass vaccination points and a slightly larger number of doses has finally arrived, but there have also been mass absences of citizens and problems with invitations being accepted.
"Are you thinking of just letting everyone come next week, and whoever wants to get vaccinated can come and receive it?" Health Minister Vili Beros was asked.
"Thank you for that question. Theoretically, perhaps in the way you suggested, we'd end up harming some older people who had previously applied to be vaccinated. However, of course, in the given circumstances, we'll do everything to make sure we use up every dose,'' Beros answered for RTL.
He added that this was not ruled out as an option as the Croatian COVID-19 vaccination process goes on. “We need to be flexible and do what's best for the healthcare system,” he concluded.
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